Burning Vengeance
by Gundam Kaiser
Summary: A young Shinji is approached by a man who wants to make a deal. Shinji, for the first time in his life, doesn't hesitate. The stranger obeys the spirit of the pact, not the exact words. Yui Ikari returns. And Shinji becomes the new Ghost Rider. Shin/Yui.
1. The Contract

Burning Vengeance

_The Contract_

**This is the Gundam Kaizer speaking, and this is basically a crossover between **_**Neon Genesis Evangelion**_** and **_**Ghost Rider**_**. Granted, I haven't actually SEEN the Evangelion anime yet, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'll be able to anytime soon. However, I **_**am**_** reading the manga for it online, and I've also read some fanfics – hardly a perfect insight into canon, I know, but it DOES help provide a grasp of the story. Anyway, I won't really get into the swing of things until I know more about the universe, but I can promise you that there are going to be some **_**MAJOR CHANGES**_** made to the storyline. A few of those changes in a nutshell: Yui comes back to life, Shinji's a Ghost Rider, and is also Oedipus.**

***gets disturbed looks from readers***

**C'mon, THAT part would practically be canon if she were alive in the same sense as her kid!**

_**Burning Vengeance**_

A nine-year-old Shinji Ikari sat on a lonely swing set in a playground after school; it was nearing dusk. Any normal child would've gone home with their parents long past, but Shinji had no parents to speak of. His father had abandoned him, and his mother…

"Mother… why did you have to leave me?" Shinji asked, not really expecting an answer.

"**Dunno, kid. Tough to say, knowing as little about it as I do. But if you're up for a deal, then… I can **_**probably**_** bring her back to you."**

Shinji, teary-eyed but with a confused-yet-hopeful expression, asked, "W-what do you mean, mister?"

A fellow in his early twenties sat sprawled out on a bench, wearing a black trench coat with scarlet tribal designs on the back and arms that reminded Shinji of both fire and (for some reason) spiders, dark pants, and had a black-and-scarlet cane in his hand. He had dark hair and pale eyes, and replied, **"I mean what I said. If you're willing to make a deal with me, then I can most likely bring your mother back from the dead. So long as I can find her soul and have access to raw materials – which are almost painfully easy to obtain, I might add – I can create a duplicate her body and reanimate it via her soul. It's a simple process, for one such as myself."**

Still confused, and now a little afraid, Shinji asked, "W-who are you? And what do you want from me?"

The stranger chuckled a bit and extravagantly replied, **"Who am I? WHO AM I? I'M THE KING OF HELL, DAMNIT! … No, actually, I'm not. I just do that to make people react because I think it's hilarious. I'm really just the master of an extradimensional realm that merely LOOKS like a Christian concept of Hell. But for the sake of brevity, I'm going to call it Hell anyway. But enough of that. To answer your questions, I suppose my name is technically Mephisto now, but I prefer using my previous name, Cliff. And what contrary to what you might be thinking, I actually genuinely want to help you out. But, there are certain rules, which say that I can't do anything for you without something in return. So, I'm willing to make a trade with you. In exchange for your soul, I'll do my absolute best to bring back your mother, and you'll have the power to keep her safe until she dies naturally. That's fair, isn't it?"**

Shinji, jumping at the prospect of getting his mother back, leapt to his feet and demanded, "It's a deal! Just tell me what I have to do!"

Cliff produced a sheet of paper and a pen, and replied, **"I'm going to need you to sign this contract. But unlike my predecessor, I'm going to read aloud the contract to you so that you know what you're getting into. If at any point you have a question, feel free to ask once I'm finished."**

Then, clearing his throat, the demon lord explained the terms of the contract.

"**By signing this contract, Shinji Ikari enters into a business relationship with the current Mephisto, who will resurrect the signer's mother in exchange for the payment of the signer's soul and the promise of limited servitude as the Ghost Rider for an undetermined amount of time. As the Ghost Rider, it will be your sworn duty to protect and avenge the innocent by punishing the wicked, and also to defend against and fend off demonic invasions. At night, and/or in the presence of evil, you will transform into the Ghost Rider; a transformation which, at first, will be excruciatingly painful, but you will soon get used to. Also, while the Ghost Rider, your personality will be somewhat altered; your anger and aggression will be dramatically greater than usual, and as a side effect, you'll tend to be quite brutal compared to your normal self. However, in addition to becoming incredibly badass as the Ghost Rider, you will gain the following powers to help you achieve your duties, which include but are not limited to:**

**The ability to project and manipulate hellfire by means of streaming it from your hands, unleashing bolts, or exhalation; optional invisibility to human eyes; your strength and endurance will be an order of magnitudes higher than any mortal human; you will become nigh invulnerable against non-mystical weapons, and even then, you will be less vulnerable than humans or the majority of demons. You will be immune to any sort of attack that requires the target to have a soul, because you have none, and fire – natural or otherwise – will revitalize you, rather than hurt you. You will be able to transform any transport vehicle of your choice by imbuing it with hellfire as the Ghost Rider; this vehicle will be capable of defying standard laws of physics. Your greatest power, however, is the Penance Stare, which causes someone to suffer every cruelty they've ever inflicted through the eyes of the victim, and sends their soul to Hell at the same time.**

**Finally, there is one last power, which you shouldn't ever actually need to use, called 'Retribution'. This ability channels all of the suffering and pain on the planet into you at once, increasing your power to a level that, quite frankly, is ridiculous. But you can only use it once per week, and the longer you go without using it, the longer it will last when you need it. And if you try to use it too much, you'll just end up feeling drained of energy and suffer terrible nightmares for the next couple of days."**

Taking a chance to finally catch his breath, Cliff asked, **"Now then, are there any questions?"**

Shinji, his mind reeling from the vast amount of information that had just been imparted to him, simply requested, "Say that again, but only the really important parts, and say it simpler, please."

Cliff cracked his neck and explained, **"Okay then, in a nutshell: You sign the paper. I bring your mother back from the dead. You're Hell's bounty hunter for as long as I need you. Capiche?"**

Shinji, for the first time in his young life, leapt without looking, grabbed the pen, and signed his name on the dotted line that Cliff pointed to. After the written signature was complete, the child's finger was pricked, and a drop of blood fell at the end of the line, causing a wave of translucent scarlet runes to ripple through the contract.

And then Cliff harshly tapped his cane on the ground, as if commanding someone to appear. An ominous wind began howling through the now-moonlit streets, and the demonic overlord's brow creased in frustration.

"**How peculiar – I can't find her soul. Beings of my level can detect and retrieve human souls regardless of where they've gone after death, but I can't locate your mother."**

Just as Shinji was about to start crying and call the 'Hell King' a liar, the second Mephisto simply grinned as he said, **"Bingo. If I can't find your mother's soul in any of the potential afterlives, then that means that she must still be on Earth. Yes, that's it exactly. I can't trace her exact location, but that doesn't matter right now. I don't need the soul right here in order to revive someone, I merely require that it be in the same plane of existence. It'll be tricky, and I'll have to think a fair ways outside of the box, but I can at least do a partial resurrection, by crafting a body out of the elements I need, and then creating a different sort of metaphysical bond between it and the soul."**

With a cheshire grin, Mephisto turned to Shinji and said, **"Go home, kid. Unlike my predecessor, I fulfill the spirit of the contract, rather than the exact wording. Rest assured, I'll have your mother back from the dead – if asleep – when you wake up. Cross my heart, hope to die."**

Despite the terrifying smile, Shinji could see in the demon's eyes that he was telling the truth, and so went home, trusting him.

_**Burning Vengeance**_

One of the factors that brought Shinji to consciousness was the fact that he was warmer than usual.

Another was the vague feeling of an odd, though not unpleasant, pressure being applied on him.

Gradually opening his eyes, Shinji was shocked wide awake to find his mother sleeping partially on top of him, a serene smile on her angelic face, breathing softly, and (though he didn't realize it at first) she was completely naked. He could feel her soft breasts against his stomach, and had what an older boy would consider to be a rather nice view of firm-looking behind.

Cliff, observing from a window across the street, chuckled to himself. **"I crack myself up sometimes. Have fun with your mom, kiddo. I'll be calling on you before too long…. And if there's an innuendo in that remark, ignore it."**


	2. The Gauntlet, Part I

Burning Vengeance  
The Gauntlet, Part I

**This is the Gundam Kaizer speaking, and this is a crossover between ****Neon Genesis Evangelion**** and ****Ghost Rider****. I have now FINALLY seen the Evangelion anime (and ****The End of Evangelion****, AND ****Rebuild, but not****Death and Rebirth****). As you know, there have already been some MAJOR CHANGES made to the storyline. Nutshell: Yui comes back to life, Shinji's a Ghost Rider, and is also Oedipus.**

**In this chapter, Shinji gets some bonding time with Yui, and Mephisto provides lots of exposition, along with some humor.**

**Also, Cliff/Mephisto's theme song is "Vortex" by Megadeth. It's the only thing I could find that was both sufficiently metal AND had a beat/melody/riff/whatever-you-call-it-because-I'm-an-author-not-a-musician that fit him rather well.**

**ALSO, I AM VERY, VERY, _VERY_ SORRY FOR MIXING THIS UP WITH B:FW CHP2! Please forgive me!**

* * *

In the young Shinji's bedroom…

Once Yui Ikari had awoken from her peaceful slumber, she immediately observed three things. First, she could actually move and was inside a somewhat familiar bedroom, indicating that she was not, for some reason, within Evangelion Unit-01. Second, she was, for some reason, not wearing anything. Third, her son (who looked much older than she remembered) was underneath and clinging to her for dear life.

Bearing the analytical mind that she did, Yui set about prioritizing these three details at once, and started by hugging her son back. "It's okay, Shinji. I'm right here."

Smiling from ear to ear, tears streaming down his face, Shinji said, "He really did it! Mephisto said he'd bring you back and he did!"

Frowning a bit, but making sure not to let her baby see it, she pondered, _Mephisto? As in Mephistopheles, from the Faust myth? What's going on here?_

Looking around, she noted that the room was almost horrifically sparse for a child of Shinji's age (not that she knew how much timed had passed anyway), the only decorations of any sort being a Kamen Rider-themed calendar – with the current month being _Kamen Rider Faiz_ – and a digital alarm clock next to his bed. Moving her gaze to the other side of the room, Yui saw a bookshelf against the far wall that held almost nothing but school texts, the only exception being a few well-used volumes of a manga she didn't recognize, though it was titled Mirai Nikki. Next to it was the debut volume of another series, called Soul Eater.

Deciding that broaching the subject of this 'Mephisto' character immediately would be in poor taste, she prepared to take an equally awkward but (hopefully) less painful route to bonding with her son, when there came a rapping and a tapping at the door.

"**Special wardrobe delivery for one Yui Ikari, courtesy of Muspelheim Incorporated! Shinji my man, if you'd be so kind as to slightly open the door for me so I can hold out these clothes for your mother to grab and presumably wear, I'd appreciate it."**

In her confusion, Yui absentmindedly let Shinji out of her embrace, and her son obediently went to the door and did as directed, cracking open the door just enough for an arm in black leather to slip through with a hangar and a box.

'What the hell – wait a second, Muspelheim is the closest thing that Norse Mythology has to the Judeo-Christian Hell, and the speaker had some sort of underlying echo to his voice…'

Reaching out to take the offered clothes, Yui coldly asked, "Am I to presume that you're the so-called 'Mephisto' my son mentioned?"

Chuckling benevolently on the other side of the door, the stranger replied, **"That would indeed be me. Although I can't figure out where you get the 'so-called' part, as I ****am**** indeed the real deal. Or at least the most current one, at any rate. Anyway, Mephisto is more of a title than anything else, as I prefer to go by my original name, Cliff. Or, in full, Clifford Byron Mustaine II. No relation to the main vocalist/guitarist of Megadeth, sadly."**

Then, as Yui got dressed (Shinji did have the sense to turn around while his mother changed, though there wasn't really anything he hadn't seen in the past five minutes or so), Mephisto evidently started talking to himself as he said, **"Now then, while Yui certainly is quite familiar with putting on female clothes, and I'm certain a number of the readers are too, we want to keep the fanservice under control for a while yet, so it'll have to be glossed over. In the interests of maintaining good taste, I'll make no mention of Yui's undergarments – and I can justify that by explaining that I don't know anything about them either, other than the fact that they are indeed present. I am, however, aware that she's got a knee-length dark blue skirt (non-magical), sandals, a somewhat form-hugging red tee shirt, and a brown longcoat of the sort you'd expect from cliché detective movies. The whole thing ends up as kind of a cross between 'Badass Bookworm' and 'Hot Scientist'. And yes, I frequent TVTropes. You should see the Netherworld, we got free Wi-Fi all over the place. Now then, at this point, Yui should be finished getting dressed and I should be able to enter without the risk of seeing something that Shinji'll gut me for nearer the end of the story, but I'm going to wait until I'm invited in anyway."**

Opening the door entirely, Yui Ikari was indeed fully dressed in the aforementioned attire as she asked with a glare, "Just what on earth are you talking about? And what's going on here, anyway?"

And then, her expression changing from mild scorn to incredulity, she continued, "And… is that a mullet?"

Shrugging, Cliff replied, **"Nothing you need to worry about, ma'am. Just talking to myself about business for beings on a higher plane of existence – like myself, demigods and quasideities, fanfic authors, the aristocracy of Hell, and so on. I'll fill you in on the events of the prologue chapter while Shinji's at school, a place which he needs to leave for at, say, the end of this conversation."**

Narrowing his eyes, he added, **"And to answer your other question, YES this is a mullet. Is that a problem?"**

Raising her hands to the ceiling, Yui shouted, "It's – what, 2010 now? What sane person goes around with a MULLET and expects to be taken seriously? A MULLET, for crying out loud!"

Indignant, Cliff pretentiously shook his hair and said, **"Hey hey hey, mullets are cool! Besides, even if you're not flexible enough to think so, I'M THE KING OF HELL, DAMNIT! If I want a goddamn mullet, I think I've earned the right to have a goddamn mullet! Besides, who said I was sane in the first place? Name and place of residence, I'll set him straight."**

Looking over at the clock and observing that it was indeed a school day for Shinji – a Monday, to be precise – Yui relented and sent Shinji off to school. Normally, she would have walked him there, but a) she didn't know where itr was in relation to their current location, b) a strange woman suddenly dropping him off at his school would probably raise a lot of unwanted attention, and c) she had matters to discuss with the alleged King of Hell.

Once Shinji was on the street, hurriedly running to his education, Cliff began, **"Let's go for a walk, shall we?"**

Then, leadiung the way outside, Cliff allowed the recent resurrectee to ask questions at her own pace. **"Now before we begin, I have a few rules. One, no Netherworld politics. Two, you may not trash talk my mullet. Three, you can ask about pretty much anything else, other than those two points that I mentioned. Now, shoot."**

Frowning, Yui began with the most pressing question. "All right then, who are you exactly? You claim to be a demon called Mephistopheles. Can you prove it to me?"

Smirking, Mephisto turned around and, while walking backwards, said, **"Well for one thing, you're alive in a more conventional sense than you were, you're self-aware, and currently reunited with your son. How much more evidence do you need?"**

Glaring, Yui scolded, "That doesn't necessarily mean that you did it."

Head falling a bit with his spirits, Cliff replied, **"So in other words, you want me to show you some power. Sorry, but I can't. Here, on Earth, my power is greatly limited. I can't use my powers just willy-nilly. No, seriously. If I manifest in this world, I'm essentially a normal human – the only caveats being that I'm still immortal, and that I can use my other powers under very, ****very**** special conditions. I can't use magic – well, magic isn't really the BEST word, but it's the closest – to take anything for myself without paying for it, and I can't use it to benefit anyone else without taking something in return. You can't just take a little of column B and a little of column C, Yui. Magic A is Magic A. It was a restraint placed on the previous Mephisto, so that he couldn't take mortal souls without giving them something in return. Of course, being the evil bastard that he was, he'd still find ways to screw them over afterwards. Even though I'm a lot nicer and generally better than he was, the Living Tribunal won't lift the restrictions. And while it sucks, I admit that it's for a good reason – if I can erase the old Mephisto, then who's to say another evil one won't be able to erase me? Anyway, here, I only really have the power of compromise, which sucks."**

Eyes blazing with fury, Yui demanded, "So then you made some sort of deal with my son?"

With his face in shadow, **"Hey, you see a little kid alone – in the dark and in the world – asking why his mother left him, could ****you**** bring yourself to friggin' ignore him? You died somehow, and so I offered to bring you back, but the nature of my powers forced me to exact a price from him in exchange. If I had my way, there wouldn't be an orphan in the world – I'd bring all the happy families back together, free of charge, but I _can't_. I may be the King of Hell, but I _don't _like seeing innocent people suffer."**

Crying now, he continued, **"Without even a moment's hesitation, Shinji sold me his soul to have you back, even AFTER I told him what it meant. Even knowing that he'll rarely have a moment's peace, that he'll suffer time and time again, that he'll serve as my enforcer for a decade or two… it doesn't matter to him. YOU are more important to that kid than the entire world. How could I ****not**** do everything I can to help him?"**

Laughing, but more in despair than in mirth, he concluded, **"I'm friggin' pathetic. I mean, just look at me. All the power in the world, and I can't use it to help even ONE person without making them suffer for it. The things that people have suffered because I tried to help them... make me lie awake at night sometimes. The only reason I still do it is because I can't make myself stop trying to help, and because I have to make sure that someone who genuinely TRIES to ruin lives doesn't take my place."**

Surprised to find herself feeling sympathy for the devil, Yui asked, "Well, is there any way that you COULD use your full power in this realm?"

Regaining his composure, Cliff answered, **"There is exactly one way I can use the full extent of my power in this dimension – someone has to perform a ritual to summon me. Even though my power in that situation doesn't have any restrictions on it, I still can't do anything without the summoner's approval. But to command all that power, the summoner must pay a high price indeed: thirteen sinners of the worst kind, and a virgin soul – that is to say, pure of heart – freely given. The process is actually somewhat common knowledge in the occult, but almost nobody ever uses it. The fact that prospective summoners have trouble meeting the sacrifice requirement is one of the main reasons why. The fact that I drive insane anybody black-hearted enough to even try it probably has something to do with it too."**

Trying to get back to her original train of thought, Yui then asked, "Okay then. Temporarily accepting that you can resurrect the dead, how is that possible in my case? I was actually still alive, in a way."

Nodding with a smile as the conversation went back into more comfortable territory, Mephisto replied, **"Normally, I would just pluck the soul out of whatever afterlife it's in, restore the body to its condition at the time of death (in perfect health, of course), and reunite them. You, though, were indeed a special case. Because your soul was actually still in ****this**** world, I could skip that part – I just need the body and soul to be in the same dimension; even if someone's soul is on the other side of the planet, as long as it has some sort of connection to the body, life is still possible. However, you didn't have a body for me to restore, so instead I simply made a new one out of raw materials. Given the… artificial nature of your body, and that you have an abnormal bond to your soul, I think it's a bit more accurate to classify you as a homunculus than as a human. Don't worry, you still have human form, and physiologically you function the exact same way you did before your death, the only differences are that you don't age and your body automatically repairs any damage inflicted upon it."**

Nodding, and somewhat surprised that she was taking this so well, Yui then asked, "I think I can accept that. Any reason why you resurrected me naked?"

Abruptly turning around to hide a minor blush, Cliff replied, **"A number of reasons, actually. 1) the plot required it for reasons best left to Sigmund Freud, 2) the readers wanted fanservice, even if it wasn't explicit, 3) I'm a lazy ass and couldn't be bothered to craft clothing out of the elements, and 4) I found it amusing. At least I delivered you some nice threads the next morning, though, give me that much credit."**

"Indeed you did. The thought of a demon lord shopping for women's clothing, though, gives me pause."

Shocked, Mephisto said, **"You think ****I**** went shopping for your clothes? Of course not! I'M THE KING OF HELL, DAMNIT! When faced with a task I don't feel ready for, I delegate! In this instance, to a succubus!"**

"You had a succubus shop for my clothes?"

Proud of himself, Cliff nodded.

Yui, however, was confused as she asked, "Not that I'm complaining, but how did you convince a literal sex demon to get me a wardrobe this… tasteful?"

Smirking, Mephisto said, **"As I keep saying, I'm the King of Hell. When I give someone a direct order – which isn't all that often, really – they obey it or risk a brutal punishment."**

"But how the hell do you punish a sex demon who's into _every single fetish at once_?"

"**Two words: Enforced. Abstinence."**

"That's… actually rather inventive."

The odd pair was, at this point, sitting on a bench.

After a few minutes, Yui asked, "You said something earlier about my son being your enforcer. What does that mean?"

Sighing, Cliff explained, **"By selling his soul to me for a gift – in this case, you – Shinji effectively volunteered himself to be the Ghost Rider, a spirit of vengeance that hunts down the souls of the wicked and sends them to Hell. In other words, he's my superpowered bounty hunter. Fortunately, though, since your soul was already in this world, I was able to fudge the terms of the deal a bit. Normally, a Ghost Rider serves for life, but since I had to do less work to bring you back than I normally would, Shinji only has to serve temporarily. If he goes at the pace of the average Rider, it'll be around twenty years, but that's far from life given how young he is. But if he takes to his role with gusto, and can distinguish himself as an example to future Riders, then his term will shorten. It's like drafting a kid for the Vietnam War, but everyone's in it based on merit. The best I can hope for is that he'll make it through with minimal trouble, and yet in order to retire early, he needs all the trouble he can get. The whole thing sucks, really, but at least he's happier now."**

Frowning, Yui said, "Damnit. So if I want my son out of danger, he has to be in as much danger as possible first? That's so fucked up."

"**I know. At this point, sadly, the only other thing I can really do is start teaching him about his powers."**

Sighing, Yui thought for a few moments before asking, "In that case, is there anything I can do?"

A small smile coming to Mephisto's shadowed visage, he replied, **"Just do what comes naturally – be there for him. You are his reason to exist. Raise him as you would have, make damn sure he never crosses a line he shouldn't, and never let him forget just how beautiful life really is."**

* * *

**There are reasons that I gave Shinji the manga that I did. I will leave it at that. **

**Beyond that, I'm sorry that Mephisto/Cliff dominates so much of the dialogue, but, well… he's a ham, and I wanted to try and get some characterization and exposition out of the way. There was originally going to be a lot more stuff in this chapter, but I decided to end it here, largely because I like keeping my chapters at a somewhat constant length, and I don't normally like getting longer than this.**

**Also, for fans of _Devourer_, I have a poll on my user page, in which you should vote.**


	3. The Gauntlet, Part II

Burning Vengeance  
The Gauntlet, Part II

**This is the Gundam Kaizer speaking, and this is a crossover between Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost Rider. I have now also seen EOE and Rebuild, if I haven't said so somewhere else. Therefore, I know lots more about the crapsack world that is Evangelion, and this story should be all the better as a consequence.**

**Since Mephisto took up most of the last chapter with exposition (and otherwise just talking a lot), Shinji getting some experience with his powers got pushed back to this chapter.**

* * *

It had been three years since his mother had returned. In that time, Shinji and Yui had moved to a different city – and by Shinji's insistence, one with a high crime rate. After all, it would be better to try and burn through the curse as quickly as possible.

By Yui's insistence, they were occasionally moving about the world. Partly to drop Shinji off of Gendo's radar, partly just for the experience. Italy, for the time being. What's left of Vatican City, to be more precise.

Which meant that Hell's bounty hunter was living in the city of the Pope.

Shinji had actually met him, once. Some closet anti-gypsy psycho named Jean-Claude Frollo. For the sins of hatred, envy, corruption, and uncontrollable lust **(1)**, the Ghost Rider scorched him to a crisp.

The next Pope was a blonde person named Lucius who was so feminine that for three months Shinji honestly thought that Lucius was a woman. He was not, which would have led to trauma if Shinji weren't obsessed with his mother, Yui Ikari. Lucius, however, was a very nice and accepting person, and was actually spiritually pure enough to deserve the position and do it justice.

Fast approaching midnight, the full moon cast a pale light over the city.

Wincing as his skull lit on fire and burned away the flesh, Shinji Ikari said to himself, "It's hun**ting time."**

As the flames engulfed his body, a rapid series of sickening cracks could be heard as Shinji screamed in absolute pain, his bones constantly snapped and re-formed, expanding as the boy grew until he had the height and build of an average man twice his age.

While technically he could go out any time at night, there was just something special about midnight, the witching hour. Working out the kinks in his neck, the Ghost Rider raised his face to the moon, allowing the stench of greed to filter through his senses, giving him the power to detect evil and hunt it down.

And, a strong stench of evil reaching him, the Ghost Rider set out like a bloodhound.

The Ghost Rider casually stepped off the roof of the nine-story building he was on and allowed himself to fall for a few floors, before grabbing the wall with a hand to get some traction and slow down. Once he was at a manageable speed, Hell's enforcer used the wall as a springboard and leapt off into the distance at a ninety-degree angle.

Despite the increase in bone mass, the lack of any other sort of tissue meant that he was considerably lighter than usual, and with that lightness came exceptional speed and jumping ability even without the hellfire augmentation.

After having made it a block or two, the Ghost Rider stumbled upon a motorbike and, despite knowing that Yui Ikari would frown a bit about it, nevertheless borrowed it and converted it into a hell-cycle. As the supernatural flames began to course through the bike, the metal screeched as it twisted and warped until it had become more sleek and angular. **(2)**

As the Rider straddled his new ride, he appeared to grin as the pull of the sin of greed grew ever stronger. And with a roar of the engine, the Ghost Rider was gone, a trail of hellfire and molten concrete the only sign that he had ever been there to begin with.

Riding at over two-hundred miles per hour, it was only a matter of minutes until he had arrived at the base of a massive skyscraper – the Italian headquarters of a multinational cosmetics company: Shirogane Corp. And the founder/CEO of said company just happened to be in town for a meeting.

As he neared the wall, the Rider quickly leaned back and forced the front wheel of his ride high into the air and as it came into contact with the side of the building, Shinji psychically transferred most of the bike's traction to the front tire, further increasing the hellfire-augmented grip, allowing him to drive up the side of the wall.

At a right angle to the ground.

Nearing the top floor, however, the Ghost Rider leaned back again, and then pitched forward, hard as he slammed the breaks so to speak, causing the front tire to smash through a window and the bike to enter an office.

Where a man in a suit that must've cost him ten million dollars was calmly staring at the Rider with his hands before his face in a very particular pose. Yes, that pose.

The executive, Shinjiro Shirogane, asked, "Good evening, sir. Perhaps you'd like to try some of our moisturizing cream? Perhaps it can even solve the burning irritation of your skin."

Getting off of the bike, Ghost Rider replied, **"The only cream I'm here for is your greasy, rotten, worthless soul, ya son of a bitch. So then, are you going to just hand it over nice and willingly, or do I need to bend you over the table and shove a railgun up your ass, then fire it and scrape what's left off the opposite wall?"**

Smug, Shinjiro replied, "Sir, despite your impressive entrance here – and I must applaud you for your sense of theatrics – I do not believe that you have the capacity to create a railgun out of thin air."

Apparently sneering, the Rider shot back, **"Don't have to. I'll just take your damn Glock, charge it with my hellfire, and wham-bam-thank-you-sam, I have a railgun pistol, ready to be shoved up and fired into your ass."**

Unconcerned, Shinjiro countered, "Despite your obvious skill with special effects, I highly doubt that you're capable of magical transmutation."

Laughing uproariously, the Ghost Rider gathered hellfire into his right hand and fired it at the far wall, welding the door to its frame, cutting off the businessman's only means of escaping alive.

Then, he knelt and punched the floor, forcing a massive amount of hellfire into it. Contorting to suit the needs of its new master, numerous bright orange cracks appeared, as though the two were standing on molten lava in the process of solidifying.

The change crept across the floor and then up the walls, Shinjiro Shirogane no longer secure in his lack of belief as he realized that his private office in the Vatican had begun transforming into one of Hell's torture rooms.

As fear and terror gripped him, the temperature rising ever higher, Shinjiro jumped out of his chair and attempted to flee, but the molten ground beneath him suddenly became much less solid, trapping his feet within the rock.

And then, implacable as death, the Ghost Rider began to advance, one step after another, taking his time. Allowing his target to bathe in his sweet, delicious terror.

For the first time in his life, Shinjiro Shirogane had lost control of his own life.

Just before he could attempt to scream, the Ghost Rider clamped down on his jaw and decreed the corrupt businessman's sentence.

"**The nine hells call. The earth cries out. The crowd roars. Can you hear them, Shinjiro? They are all calling out to me. To defeat evil and to purge the world of your sickening taint. Listen well, you scumbag. I am the Spirit of Vengeance, the Ghost Rider!"**

With this declaration, Ghost Rider lifted Shinjiro out of the ground and then chokeslammed the corrupt corporate executive through a wall and into the corridor, effortlessly tore his arms off by brute force alone, torched his soul with the Penance Stare, and then shattered the brimstone remains with a mere twitch. As an afterthought, he pulled the Glock from the late Shinjiro's desk before imbuing it with hellfire, and then swiping the late bussinessman's iPhone. Infusing it with hellfire as well, the Ghost Rider made a call. After only a second, an enthusiastic voice answered.

"**Hey there, Shinji my man! So tell me, is the warlock dead?"**

"**Yeah. I'm sending you his handgun, which I turned into a portable railgun. Give it to the most sadistic demon you can find and have them shove it through his ass and fire it every now and then. … And before you ask, no, they can't use lube."**

"**Whoa man, I knew you'd be kinda… barbaric, every Ghost Rider is when compared to their human self, but you just go above and beyond the call of savagery, don't you?"**

"**You say it like it's a bad thing."**

"**Weeeell~, you could, you know, tune it down a wee bit. After all, what would your mum think?"**

"…**Tch. Fine, I'll try to rein it in a bit. Not like he deserved any mercy anyway."**

"**Not saying he did, but don't go out of your way to be cruel just because I pointed him out to you."**

Ending the call, the Ghost Rider shoved the gun through the hell-iPhone's screen, sending it to Mephisto's Realm along with the soul it was going to be used at.

Getting back on his bike, the Ghost Rider looked over the Vatican and Rome, his home for the last five months (and for the next month also), and he detected a couple of new sensations.

A choice for his next mission. A massive cluster of lust was beyond the borders, in Rome, but he couldn't sense any malevolence. 'Meh. I'll look into it later, but unless it's actually rape I'm not going to interfere.'

Next, there were a few minor pinpricks of envy, probably just schmuck jealous of their coworkers.

Then, he felt something else.

A demonic presence. Getting back on his bike, Ghost Rider turned around, allowing the eldritch room to revert to its normal form. Then, twisting the accelerator hard, the hellcycle shot forward in a burst of speed and launched itself out the window, into the obsidian sky.

Landing on a rooftop, the Ghost Rider continued on his way, seeking out the source.

The previous Ghost Riders had usually just focused on killers, burglars, rapists, and the like. Shinji, however, had a different priority set. He organized potential targets in importance by the sin that he felt from their aura. Greed and Pride had the highest priority, followed by Envy, Sloth, and Gluttony. He kept Wrath rather low since, being the Spirit of Vengeance, punishing people for it without investigation of the circumstances would be hypocritical. Lust, to Shinji at least, was generally the least important.

However, that was only among humans. Demons in general instantly had top priority.

After a few blocks, Shinji had found his target, half a mile into Rome.

A rebel incubus moving towards a pair of twins, barely into adolescence.

With one last leap, the hellcycle landed directly in the rogue demon's path, and the Ghost Rider got off of it. **"Mind tellin' me what you're doing here?"**

Curiously, the demon was emaciated, and had a peculiar expression, that Shinji recognized after a moment. Madness, born of sheer desperation.

"**Out of my way, Rider! Can't you see I'm literally wasting away? I want only to LIVE! Is that too much to ask for?"**

"**Given that you're flying at a couple of girls that can't be more than – what, eleven? Twelve? Yes. It is. Find some older targets. There's probably a few dissatisfied housewives around here, go look for them." **

"**I DON'T HAVE THE TIME, RIDER! I can't believe you side with the new King's worthless laws and restrictions! I would never be suffering like this were the TRUE Mephisto still in power!"**

With that, the incubus lunged for the Ghost Rider's neck, intent on breaking it. While something that minor wouldn't be enough to kill the Rider, it would put him out of commission for the next few minutes, by which point it would be too late.

Seeing that the rogue, rabid demon was beyond reasoning with, the Ghost Rider grabbed his pocketknife and, with a surge of hellfire, morphed it into a longsword. Then, after a moment to predict his timing, Hell's enforcer took a single step forward and in one strike, cleaved the demon in two. As the separate halves of the demon burned to ashes, the Rider declared, **"Mephisto said it, and I'll say it too. ****CHILDREN ARE OFF LIMITS.****"**

Having settled the matter, Shinji again used his sensory abilities to determine if there would be another target for the night. The pinpricks of envy had vanished, although the intense aura of lust remained. Actually nearby, coincidentally. How the incubus had managed to not sense it confused the demonic enforcer, but decided that it was just a symptom of how far gone that poor bastard had been.

With a sigh, he did his duty and headed towards it, despite already having a good idea of what he'd find. Not having detected any sort of hostility, it probably wasn't worth his attention, but it's always better to check. The apartment complex was also mostly empty, except for a cluster of souls in one area.

Probably a condemned building that the local government had forgotten about, or something to that effect.

Upon arrival, the Ghost Rider noted that everything was quiet, and not wanting to alert anyone, returned to his human, child form. Softly padding through the front door and a few hallways, he came to an apartment that reeked strongly of sex, with the door wide open.

Glancing through, he saw a beautiful young woman with relatively large breasts, her slightly plump ass in the air, white 'cream' coating much of her face and chest. Shinji also noted the same 'cream' leaking out of both her lower holes. The sight of at least ten guys in the same room, all of them passed out, confirmed what had happened.

After a second, the woman's eyes opened, and Shinji saw that she was both completely lucid and absolutely, utterly satisfied. "Oh, hey there, kiddo. You're free to look all you want, but sorry, no action tonight. Come find me in three years or so, though, and I'll probably change my mind."

Outwardly apathetic, Shinji asked, "Wasn't looking for any. Detected a mass of lust and was wondering if I needed to intervene."

Mildly curious, the woman looked at him, but then shrugged and said, "As I think you can guess, everything that went on here was totally consensual. And if you're some kind of supernatural punisher or something, then whatever. I know I'm going to hell anyway, so it doesn't really matter to me."

"If I may ask… why?"

Pausing for a moment, the woman – still in an extremely provocative position, having deigned not to move yet – replied, "Why would I do this to myself? Strip away all of my dignity and just let anybody do whatever with me? Because it's my escape. My life sucks even more than I do, so… this happens. Pretty often, really. Basically, I'm running away from my problems and trying to drown myself in pleasure."

Most of his nerves hadn't fully recovered yet, so Shinji didn't feel any pain upon transforming back into the Ghost Rider, simply to show the woman that she was correct in her presumption about his true nature.

Even though he could see the slight fear in her eyes, she controlled it well, as she sounded rather uninterested. "So I guess you're here to punish me, then? To burn my soul and send me to my eternal damnation or whatever?"

Shaking his head, the Ghost Rider replied, **"No, I'm not. As I said, I came here only to investigate. So you're the biggest slut I've ever seen. Hell, maybe even the sluttiest slut in all of slutdom. I can sense that there has been no conflict here, no malice. Fuck yourself into oblivion if you wish; so long as you maintain the status quo – that being that there is no malice and no betrayal involved – you probably won't ever see me again. If there's no one being wronged, then there's no reason for the Spirit of Vengeance to get involved. You ****are**** probably going to the place you think of as Hell, but we're under new management. So long as you play by the rules, it's actually no worse than this world, on average. I see flames and darkness in your future, but not much in the way of suffering."**

With the closest approximation of a kind smile that a flaming skull could manage, he left, casting only a few more words over his shoulder. **"Even stained with more Lust than I've ever seen in one human so far, your soul is still far kinder than most. I honestly hope that your life improves and that the rest of your days on Earth are happier than those before, miss."**

Smiling back at him, the woman began to rise as she replied, "Please, Lucrecia. Although you're rather merciful for the agent of heaven's vengeance."

Stopping just short of the door, the Ghost Rider instantly turned back, the flames giving the impression of a soft scowl. **"I'm not heaven's vengeance. To be honest, if I were to ever meet God, I'd punch Him in the face and ask what the hell was wrong with Him, letting things get this bad. If He's our father, then shouldn't He give more of a damn about His children? On the other hand, were I to meet Christ, I'd probably shake his hand and ask if he could make the rounds down here ****without**** causing the Apocalypse. I figure that ****he**** was a pretty cool guy. No, I'm Hell's bounty hunter. I'm the Spirit of ****human**** Vengeance; of Hell's ****justice****. I only hunt down humans who wrong other humans. Sin all you like, so long as nobody gets hurt by it. Farewell… Lucrecia."**

Having clarified his nature, the Ghost Rider left, and deciding that he'd done enough work for the night, returned home. Still needed to get some damn sleep for school in the morning. Thank the heavens that he could infuse his vocal chords alone with hellfire, which could translate whatever he said into another language.

* * *

**(1) If nobody gets any of the reference regarding the first Pope, I'll cry. And then I'll explain it in a reply if you ask me. If nobody gets the reference for the second Pope… I'll still be sad, but I'll be a lot more understanding about it.**

**(2) Basically, the bike that Daniel Ketch rides in the comics.**

**This just in! If you need to send merchandise to the lower rings of hell, there's an app for that.**

**Also, I know that this chapter is likely going to be rather controversial. … Deal with it.**


	4. The Arrival

Burning Vengeance  
Entry

**This is the Gundam Kaizer speaking, and this is a crossover between ****Neon Genesis Evangelion**** and ****Ghost Rider****. Now that set-up has been taken care of, we can FINALLY get the plot off the ground! **

**Also, I expect that you all give a big ol' round of applause to Marq FJA over at TVTropes, who recommended this on an Eva fanfic thread and continually inspired me to work on this chapter a bit faster.**

**By which I mean he wanted a new chapter for Christmas.**

**Disclaimer: If I make reference to something that is obviously owned by someone else, then... well, obviously, it's owned by someone else and not me. **

**When we get to the fight scene, feel free to insert 'Fight On!', the boss music from ****Final Fantasy VII****.**

* * *

The year is 2015, and in Northern Japan, Shinji and Yui Ikari had just rendezvoused with Clifford Byron Mustaine II, better known as the current Mephisto outside of a local convenience store.

Just as Cliff was about to hand out his bounty hunter's next assignment, however, his cell phone rang. Not his black one that used for hell-related business, his other phone.

The white one.

Flipping his mobile open, Mephisto answered it. **"Yeah? … Well who the hell ****else**** would it be, the Virgin Mary? … I'll speak however I want to ****you****, I'M THE KING OF HELL, DAMNIT! … Anyone ever tell you how much of a dick you are, Met?"**

However, the voice on the other side said something that have been extremely important, because at that moment Mephisto lost all of his previous joking behavior, becoming completely serious. His body language said a thousand things, all of which could be summed up as 'Oh shit.'

As the color drained from his face, Mephisto asked, **"How many? … Six as of last headcount, you say? Well, if you've really sent an agent or two to try and keep an eye on the situation and help us out, then I guess it's not ****that**** much of a prob- Wait. ****WHAT**** was that last name? Oh fuck, not ****him****… … The fuck is his problem, anyway? …. Oh come ****on****, surely you shit me, Met. … What?! But that's just retarded! I may not have been there for it, but even ****I**** know that it's been way worse than it is now, and LOADS of times at that! And the way I see it, you guys shouldn't be allowed to interfere with the kiddies until the Big G himself says otherwise, and you told me he's been hush-hush about it all, right? …. Well, ****no****, of course I don't report to 'im directly, I'm the King of Hell, damnit! Even so, I still run my operation under a mandate handed down by the LIVING! TRIBUNAL! ITSELF! Which is an authority even higher than your boss. … No, I'm ****not**** trying to pick a fight with you, ya damn jackass! You sanctimonious pricks keep telling me to communicate more often, and when I do, you take everything I say ****completely**** the wrong way! … Yes, of course I'll give him the mission. … That was uncalled for, asshole! Just because I get sidetracked easily doesn't make me a ditz."**

Huffing in exasperation, Mephisto flipped shut his phone, looked at the mother and child before him, and with a shrug, said, **"Jackass Archangels. What can you do?"**

At this, Yui and the fifteen year-old Shinji just glanced at each other bemusedly.

Shaking his head for a moment, Mephisto then began pacing back and forth as he said, **"Okay then. Just got a call, straight from the top. Well, not ****really**** the top, given that there are loads of cosmic beings higher up on the totem pole, but the top as far as the Pope is concerned. Anyway. Your mission, regardless of whether or not you choose to accept it, is to mosey on over to Tokyo-3, Japan."**

Wary of the conversation held a moment ago, Yui asked, "Now just hold on a second. You kept referring to the other person as 'Met'… please tell me that you weren't just speaking with Metatron, the voice of the Almighty himself…"

"**Sorry, personal policy – can't lie to a lady. Although there are, in fact, numerous entities that are even Almightier than him. Don't ask how that works, I don't know either. ****Anyway****, turns out that six of his Angels have decided that because Humans Are Bastards, you no longer have the right to exist. So they're coming down here to put an end to your race. Even though humanity today isn't even one-twentieth of the bastardry they had during the Crusades. Aaaaaaaaand I keep getting sidetracked, need to watch out for that. Anyway, Shinji my man, you need to head on over to Tokyo-3, where you'll be on standby preparing to deal with the Fallen Angels as they arrive."**

Shaking his head without a care in the world, Shinji asked, "Which Angels are coming to be struck down?"

Sighing, Mephisto replied, **"Cheap bastard wouldn't name them all, just told me that the first three are probably gonna be Sachiel, Ramiel, and Gaghiel, the Angels of Water, Thunder, and Fish respectively. Oh yeah, and he told me that at some point, freaking ****Zeruel****'s gonna show up, and he ****won't**** be on our side. So be careful if you run across him, and don't hesitate to call for backup. I may not be able to do much myself, but at the very least I can track down the other Riders and send them to you. One other thing – they're sending out two other dudes who'll be on our side. One's on loan to help fight against Zeruel, the other is something like a sleeper agent among the fallen."**

Then, the King of Hell turned to Yui and said, **"Meanwhile, I've got a job for you to take care of as well, Yui. ****Yes****, that means that the two of you will be separated for the next year or so, HOWEVER!"**

Having raised his voice to pre-emptively quell their reactions, Mephisto eventually continued, **"If the two of you can pull off your respective tasks, then I swear on my title as King of Hell that I will grant each of you one wish. Given the size of the combined mission before you, I should be able to do so without any sort of limit. Immediately end Shinji's service as the Rider? Not a problem. Craft a proper humanoid body with the soul correctly connected, thus restoring Yui's biological humanity and ability to age? Not a problem. ****Render the both of you near-immortal and with your present abilities intact, but as free agents, therefore with loyalty only to yourselves, so that you can be together until the end of time as your own masters? ****Not. A. Problem.**** And without an additional cost either, since you'll have paid for it with what I'm asking of you now."**

Eyes gleaming with excitement, Shinji immediately stepped forward and said, "I'll take the assignment. I don't really have a problem with living forever with these powers, but that's really a secondary concern to, y'know, saving the world."

Mephisto smirked a little to himself and nodded. **"Of course! By the by, Met said they'd probably be in their Angelic forms. It's... ****not**** something you're gonna be comfortable with, but rather something monstrous. We're talking the size of your standard Kaiju here. So don't hesitate to bust out your Retribution state if it looks like you're gonna need it."**

Suddenly, the fact that they were talking about Angels in the context of Tokyo-3 caught up with Yui, and she said, "What about the Evangelions? NERV – top-secret organization I was one of the main brains for – created them to fight Angels, the coming of which were prophesied in the Dead Sea Scrolls."

Interested, Mephisto raised an eyebrow. **"Oh REALLY now? Tell me about these Evangelions. Since we're talking about the messengers of God at their full power, logic dictates that these Evangelions must be the mortal enemy of all Kaiju – the Super Robot!"**

"Erm, sort of. We actually cloned a few Angels which we codenamed ADAM and Lilith, then repurposed them to be cyborgs. But to make them work, we need to power it with a human soul, and the pilot needs a strong bond to said soul. And my soul was used for the test type, Unit-01. An Evangelion effectively functions like a Super Robot, though."

"**I see. In that case, Shinji, see if you can get access to Eva Unit-01 and start kicking ass with it. While you go ahead on over to Tokyo-3 now, I'm going to iron out the details of Yui's mission with her, and then that will be that."**

Shinji nodded, getting on the bike he'd 'liberated' from his most recent target and revved the engine a bit before suddenly turning it off, going inside the store, and coming back out with a road atlas. Muttering to himself as he worked out the best way to reach Tokyo-3, Shinji eventually nodded, stuffed the atlas in a pouch strapped to the back of the bike, and then rode off like a bat out of hell.

Not even a mile out, he'd taken Rider form and turned the bike into its hellcycle form so he could make the half-day trip in a couple of hours.

However, there is a certain fact that mst be taken into account when dealing with the supernatural, and that fact is that time flows differently in different planes of reality, and at inconsistent rates. At one time, Heaven might be millienia ahead of Earth – at another, Earth may have a ten minute lead on Heaven.

For this reason, while the Angels had only just then gone rogue from Heaven's point of view, the first to arrive on Earth had already done so twelve hours ago.

So when the Ghost Rider arrived in Tokyo-3, he was greeted with the view of a city halfway destroyed, a giant monster on the loose... and an orange cyborg of equal size with a building shoved through its chest, limbs scattered across several blocks.

"Well... shit. Time to clock in."

With that, Shinji began his hellish transformation.

His bones shattered and reformed, becoming longer and larger to account for the height increase of the Ghost Rider; his flesh, his eyes, and other organs burned or boiled away and the remaining skeleton caught fire.

After a moment to gather himself after burning alive for the zillionth time, the Ghost Rider drew a handgun and took a few seconds to line up his shot.

"**Center the target, pull the switch."**

In an instant, three bolts of hellfire burst from the barrel, effortlessly burned through the A.T. Field, and impacted against the Angel's back, causing minor explosions and leaving severe burns that Sachiel couldn't regenerate.

Ghost Rider would've smirked, if he had a face. **"I love the smell of burnt Angel in the evening."**

With that, he ran forward atthe fallen Angel, this time aiming for the back of its leg joint. While he could certainly climb the damn thing if he had to, he'd rather it not come to that.

After a few shots, Hell's bounty hunter switched to his chain, and with an expert toss – and a little psychic guidance via the hellfire running through it – wrapped the brimstone and steel around Sachiel's ankle.

Digging his feet into the pavement, Ghost Rider somehow managed a grin as he muttered, **"Timber, bitch,"** and yanked the Angel's foot out from under him, causing the heavenly goliath to topple forward, impacting the ground with enough force to simulate a decent-sized earthquake.

* * *

NERV was, justifiably, in one hell of a panic. First, an Angel had appeared and proved itself nigh-invulnerable against all conventional weaponry – even the N2 mine had had only a minimal effect, having it stop for about an hour to regenerate. And the second one had been completely ineffective.

Then, they'd resorted to sending out Rei in Evangelion Unit-00... and the Angel had promptly proceeded to rip its limbs off and impale the prototype on a skyscraper with minimal apparent effort.

So the Angel had been free to take its time to methodically destroy Tokyo-3 for the past few hours, steadily making its way toward the giant beneath the Geofront.

Then, out of nowhere, a few explosions occurred on its back and on the back of its knee, before the Angel fell over on its face like it had been tripped. And according to the surveillance cameras that had immediately scoured the area, some sort of hellspawn was responsible for it.

Gendo Ikari, contrary to his stoic expression, was rather concerned. First, he had been unable to track down his wayward son for the past few years, which meant that Unit-01 lacked a Shinji to pilot it. And without Shinji, Unit-01 would be forever dormant. And roughly ninety percent of any scenario for Instrumentality – be it his or the old men's – hinged on Unit-01 being operational and the pilot thereof going insane from a carefully orchestrated string of nervous breakdowns.

The scenario could be reworked – perhaps by switching the souls of Units 01 and 02 and arranging for the Second Child to pilot Unit-01 – but doing so could take years, since the two experts on the subject were unavailable to assist. Because they were the souls in question. And even then, that only solved for SEELE's scenario, as Gendo's rather specifically required Yui to be at the center of Instrumentality in order to achieve his reunion with her. Putting Kyoko inside of Unit-01 wouldn't do him the least bit of good.

Gendo took a moment to analyze the situation. Rei would be unable to pilot again for the next couple of weeks or more unless she uploaded to a different body, Unit-00 would take at least as long to get repaired, Unit-01 was little more than scrap metal without Shinji inside of it, and even if SEELE assented to sending Asuka and Unit-02 over to Tokyo-3 immediately, it would still be about a week before their arrival unless she and the Eva were shipped by air.

In the meantime, however, a demon the size of a man was taking on a monster over a hundred times its size, and - thus far – was kicking said monster's ass.

With luck – or, failing that, a miracle – Shinji would somehow find his way onto NERV's doorstep and things could proceed as had been planned.

Gendo said, "It seems that we will have to rely on this newfound x-factor to destroy the Angels until we can find another pilot and repair Unit-00. The x-factor is to be designated with the codename 'Lucifer' for the time being. Hyuga, are the MAGI able to get a read on it?"

Taking a moment to confer with the supercomputer, the technician nodded. "Affirmative, Commander. The MAGI are detecting an intense energy signature from 'Lucifer'. Can't get a read on what the energy is, though, since it doesn't match up with anything recorded in the database."

Misato quipped, "Thing's apparently a demon, why not call it hellfire?"

At that moment, the Angel managed to get up and punched 'Lucifer' into the street, creating a massive crater.

Maya suddenly shouted, "Lucifer's energy readings are rising drastically – the MAGI can't keep up with the rate of increase!"

* * *

Even with a force of over fifty tons pressing down on him, the Ghost Rider was relatively unhurt. Oh, he had no chance in hell of getting out of his predicament without a trump card – which he had – but the Angel had only managed to crack a few ribs.

_"Soldier of Hell, why do you fight for these worthless humans?! They have long since turned their back on Him and His love – I am merely serving the divine punishment long overdue them!"_

Pressing up against a fist fifty times bigger than he was, Ghost Rider decided that it was time for the Retribution state.

"**Vengeance will flood through my body."**

In an instant, the world was covered in a veil of bloodred light. All across the world, the innocent suffered injustice upon injustice, and cried out for the punishment of their tormentors.

Ghost Rider opened himself up to their pleas, allowing the screams for vengeance to engulf him. The flames turned white with righteous anger.

And, without expending any effort at all, Ghost Rider picked up Sachiel off the ground, by his fist, and tossed the Angel over his shoulder, sending him skidding across several city blocks.

Sachiel, battered and bruised, rose up and glared at the Spirit of Vengeance, before unleashing an energy blast from its eyes.

Ghost Rider merely opened his mouth, and unleashed a stream of hellfire with so much force that the two energy attacks met in the middle and struggled against each other for a second. It was only a second, however, until the stream of hellfire overpowered Sachiel's optic blast and barbecued the Angel's face.

Wasting no time, the Spirit of Vengeance turned to a skyscraper and flash-melted the bottom floor, before heaving it onto his shoulder. One burst of hellfire later, the giant office building had been turned into a makeshift spear nearly thick as the Angel was wide.

Stumbling backward a few steps, Ghost Rider tossed the hundred-story spear at Sachiel, impaling the Angel of Water in the gut at three times the speed of sound. Then, the Spirit of Vengeance leapt onto the end of the office javelin, rebounded, and lunged at the Angel's core in a flying kick.

"**Rider... KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"**

The representation of its soul destroyed, Sachiel convulsed for a few seconds until it exploded.

The Ghost Rider effortlessly landed on his feet, disengaged the Retribution state, and muttered, **"Punishing sinners is ****my**** job, you sanctimonious punk."**

Calling his hellcycle to him with a snap of his fingers, Hell's bounty hunter mused, **"Now then, I need a way to get myself hired by NERV. Since looking them up in a phone book is out of the question – primarily because ****applying**** for EVA pilot would likely get me imprisoned, interrogated, and possibly dissected – I need to get ****them**** to notice ****me****, and in a way that would prove my reliability as a defender of Earth."**

Just before he started trying to work out a plan, his cell phone went off. **"Yeah boss? ... Is that a fact? ... I see. ... What about souvenirs? ... Uh huh... A penthouse suite? I guess that's pretty cool... And you enrolled me at the school here in Tokyo-3? Why? ... I'll admit that that makes sense. ... ... Okay, now that's just fucked up. ... Three billion human lives are in the balance, and you're worried about my ****grades?!****"**

The Ghost Rider would've rolled his eyes if he hadn't boiled them away. As it was, he had to settle for closing his cell.

* * *

The next morning, Shinji arrived at the local school, and was greeted by a brown-haired girl with pigtails and freckles. "I'm Hikari Horaki, the class representative. You must be the new student I was told about earlier this morning."

Shinji took a moment, musing how – for the first time in several years – he'd be forced to interact with more than a half-dozen people at a time on a regular basis.

"Shinji Ikari. I don't go out of my way to make trouble, but if someone else starts giving me a hard time... I'll let you use your imagination."

With that, he strode in and observed the class was half-empty. Shinji took out a sheet of paper and a pen for taking notes, and then he took out a volume of a manga called Berserk for avoiding boredom.

"What's that about, Ikari?"

Looking at the inquisitive class rep out of the corner of his eye, Shinji wryly smirked as he replied, "It's about a hero who never gives up until his enemies are vanquished, no matter how much the world makes him suffer, and he'll never rest until his love interest is restored to her original self."

Completely oblivious, Hikari replied, "Oh, so it's a heroic romance story? In that case, mind if I borrow it sometime?"

_... I so want to see the look on her face when she actually takes a look inside. Maybe I should give her the Eclipse first thing? ... On second thought, even I'm not that cruel._

His smirk got a little sinister as he replied, "I'm sure there are a few people in the world who'd call it that, yes. And sure, I'll give you a few volumes tomorrow."

Hikari happily hummed to herself as she resumed her pre-class duties, Shinji muttered to himself, "... Wow, now I almost feel bad about trolling her like this. ... Almost."

* * *

**Yay for fake symbolism. Except some of it isn't fake anymore. Except that, to balance that out, I may have thrown in some new symbolism that ****is**** fake. Except that, if examined in great enough detail and under the proper light, it may not be fake after all.**

**Best part is, Shinji never **_**technically**_** lied to Hikari. He just left out the important bits that most people would like to know before they start getting into it.**

**Since it's the season of giving, can I get some reviews?**

**Merry Christmas, everyone!**

* * *

OMAKE

"**I see. In that case, Shinji, see if you can get access to Eva Unit-01 and start kicking ass with it. While you go ahead on over to Tokyo-3 now, I'm going to iron out the details of Yui's mission with her, and then that will be that. One last thing, though, got this in the mail for ya."**

Shinji reached out and accepted the letter, which was a postcard addressed to Shinji Ikari. It had one word written on it in neon pink.

COME.

Yui muttered, "I expected more from my ex than that. Judging by the news, he's become such a dickhead since I died. Not to mention that he was supposed to take care of you in my place, sweetie..."

Mephisto observed the card, and how it didn't actually have any specific address on it.

And then wondered how the postal system had known where to send it.

"**Ugh, this reeks of a poorly-handled plot point. Best we pretend it never happened."**


	5. Gaiden chapter

Burning Vengeance  
_Gaiden Chapter  
_

**This is the Gundam Kaiser speaking, and this is a crossover between **_**Neon Genesis Evangelion**_** and **_**Ghost Rider**_**. Reaction to the last chapter was a bit less than I'd hoped, even though we finally properly got the story off the ground. If the quality's dropping, then TELL ME what I'm doing wrong so I can fix it. Conversely, tell me what I'm doing RIGHT so I can **_**keep**_** doing it. Anyway, I've been in something of a funk lately, and I couldn't come up with anything more substantial than this, well, sort of a Gaiden chapter. But hey, it advances the story and it gives you guys something to read.  
**

* * *

Ritsuko asked, "Commander, should we look into getting another pilot? Or should we instead prioritize repairs for Unit-00?"

Gendo took a few solid minutes to consider that. On the one hand, petitioning SEELE for use of Asuka and Unit-02 was probably the wisest course of action, since it ensured both a capable pilot _and_ a functioning unit within the space of a week. On the other hand, however, the old men would probably refuse him any request of that nature until he had proof that the last attack hadn't been a freak occurrence – in other words, there would need to be more attacks. And they'd both have to be in Tokyo-3, or at least in Japan, in order to establish the necessary pattern to justify SEELE relinquishing one of its assets into Gendo's control.

Of course, he could probably find a way to get the old men to give him the Second Child and her EVA anyway, but it would not be without sacrifices on his end. And were the old men were concerned, Gendo didn't have any assets that he could give up. The alternative cost would be that he accept several of their own personnel at the same time, which would a) render the Second Child out of his grasp despite being in his proverbial backyard; b) make it drastically harder to carry out his operations without their notice – or at least, with less of their notice – c) actively hinder his scenario, and quite possibly d) all of the above.

The way things stood at present, the only pieces he had who weren't indispensable – at least for the forseeable future – were Fuyutsuki and the bridge technicians. The technicians themselves were all but irrelevant, but they still had to be kept because while they _could_ be replaced, training said replacements would take time. And time – like so many others – was one commodity that Gendo didn't really have.

Fuyutsuki, also, for all his lack of vital importance couldn't be traded away. He knew too much, after all, and in anyone else's hands, the old teacher could single-handedly destroy the entire operation – both for Gendo, and for SEELE. On the other hand, however, Gendo could actually trust Fuyutsuki, and the last vestiges of sentimentality in his heart commanded the Ikari patriarch to keep him around.

So while petitioning to get Asuka and Unit-02 immediately would be the wisest choice if defeating the Angels were the only concern, for initiating Third Impact on Gendo's terms it was perhaps the _worst_ choice. While any plan could be adapted once made, the earlier deviations began to occur, the further the chances of it going horribly awry multiplied.

Gendo mused, _I might actually smile if I saw my son right about now, if only because of how much his presence should smooth things out for me. Perhaps... perhaps I could bring him in on the plan as well, if we find him. If he wants a reunion with Yui half as much as I do, he won't have a choice._

However, this tangent lead him back to the original question. If acquiring the Second Child and Unit-02 were out of the question, for now, then that left him with three options. One, he could prioritize repairs to Unit-00 above everything else in the hopes of getting it ready for the next attack. He could have Rei undergo emergency upload into a new body in order to pilot, if things came to that.

Second, he could attempt try to get a Fourth Child, in the hopes that they'd be at least _somewhat_ compatible with Units-01 or 00. Units-03 and 04 were still in the United States, and for that matter still under construction, so they were non-factors.

The third option was to do both and hope that, somehow, he'd manage to pull a miracle out of his ass before the budget ran out. Or that Shinji showed up, whichever came first.

Despite the rather... lackluster performance in the first battle, prioritizing repairs to Unit-00 was the most reliable bet. If an Angel came, they'd have at least _something_ to meet it with. If Rei healed and Unit-00 was fixed and there was still time to spare, then that time and the appropriate resources could be spent in the acquisition of new potential pilots. Or for providing Rei with additional combat training. Or upgrading Unit-00 to proper combat capability. Or at the very least improving it to match the test type, Unit-01.

His decision made, Gendo spoke. "Doctor Akagi, Rei and Unit-00 are our top priorities. Direct all feasible resources toward repairs and upgrades for the Evangelion, and do what you can to accelerate Rei's recovery as much as possible without body uploading or modifications. Dismissed."

"Understood, Commander."

* * *

As a result of the Commander's decision, NERV dropped their surveillance of the school for the time being, and for two specific reasons. First, since Rei Ayanami would be in the infirmary for the time being, the resources used to protect her out in the city were being redirected. Second, because as far as NERV was aware, Shinji Ikari was nowhere to be found, and a million other things had higher priority than monitoring other potential pilot candidates.

In effect, Shinji – who _needed_ to be found - had appeared in NERV's _one_ blind spot, immediately after they'd created it. He was in the one place they'd stopped looking, because they had no expectation of being able to find him there.

Had Shinji realized the irony, he would've been torn between laughing and crying.

As it was, he had to settle in for yet another day in a shitty class with some senile geezer who didn't teach anything new, just rotating between the same three rants about how life was better before Second Impact. The past few weeks had been worse than hell, and he could make a fair comparison. Hell was... well, hellish, but even _they_ would've considered this to be a form of mental torture as the boredom slowly unraveled the victim's psyche.

At the end of class, Hikari stormed up to Shinji and said, "I've let it slide when sensei falls asleep, but you shouldn't read your manga in class, Ikari, much less while he's lecturing."

Shinji raised an eyebrow. "He doesn't teach anything new, though. All he does is reminisce about the world pre-Impact. I've got his rants written down verbatim. There's _nothing _to be learned from paying attention to him. So I chill out instead of wasting my time paying attention to a lecture you've all heard a thousand times before."

Deciding to get the heat off of himself, he tangentially changed the subject. "So how are you liking _Berserk_, class rep?"

Hikari's face went red from embarassment. Lowering her voice, she rather cutely scolded, "You might have _told_ me the first _panel_ featured a man and a woman having sex, before the woman turned into a hellish demon and the man blasted through her face with an arm cannon. _And smirking like he planned it._"

Smug as all Hell, Shinji replied, "But then you wouldn't be reading it, and I wouldn't be having fun with your reaction. Later, class rep."

With that, he strode out and prepared for another afternoon of trying to get himself noticed by someone he didn't really care for.

* * *

**OMAKE: Poor Misato... OR, if things had gone closer to in canon...  
**

Misato had had one hell of a night. First, Shinji Ikari hadn't been where she was supposed to pick him up. Then, some on-fire skeleton dude had picked her up and thrown her bodily out of her car, turned it into a mobile artillery platform from Hell, done impossible things with it, and killed the Angel.

She'd had to go to one of the shelters to avoid being killed, and sometime after the sounds of carnage outside had died down, found Shinji. "Where the hell have you been?! Do you have any idea the kind of hell I've been through because you weren't where I could pick you up?"

Shinji yelled right back. "I was in the shelter waiting out the kaiju attack, like a normal person! And an intelligent, _rational_ person should've figured the same!"

Misato bellowed, "THERE _ARE_ NO! _RATIONAL!_ PEOPLE! IN! THIS! **SERIES!**"


	6. The Sniper

Burning Vengeance  
_The Sniper_

**Hrm. The reviews seem to keep coming less and less, and my motivation to continue with it. I will never hold the fic hostage, but if interest keeps falling like this...**

**This chapter was made possible by the awesomeness of **_**Sonic Advance 2**_**, **_**Metal Gear Solid**_**, **_**The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms,**_** and also by reviews from readers like you. Thank you.**

* * *

Yui Ikari sat in a run-down German hotel, sipping fine wine, with an anime called _Bokurano_ on television. Dressed only in a black sports bra and workout shorts of the same color, she lazily glanced out of the window, observing a civil protest in the streets below.

If things went the way they were supposed to, a certain politician would appear to make a speech in the next few minutes.

That particular politician, a member of the German legislature, had been marked for death by Mephisto. And he wanted _her_ to be the assassin.

Yui had it all planned out. The target would be taken out by a sniper rifle that she had positioned across the street. In order to distance herself from the act of actually killing someone - both literally and figuratively - Yui had designed a simple robotic device that, once she set off its sound detector by calling a disposable cell phone place next to it, would pull the trigger. The authorities would examine the most probable angle of trajectory to determine where the bullet was shot from, and then rapidly storm that location while putting the general area under a cordon in an effort to prevent the assassin from escaping.

Unfortunately for the police and anyone else, however, Yui had also set an explosive in that room in order to destroy the evidence. It was also set to go off on a sound detector, and also triggered from her calling the disposable phone, programmed with a ten-second delay after the phone began to ring. In an effort to be extra certain the evidence would be destroyed, Yui had also taken the time to douse the entire room with gasoline, and would hopefully ignite when the explosive went off. Finally, Yui had taken the liberty of appropriating an unidentified corpse from the morgue and placing it in the room.

Thus, the contents of the room would be destroyed before any investigators would be able to arrive, and if anything _was_ salvageable - like the remains of the corpse - it would be assumed that said remains belonged to the assassin, thus diminishing any reason to continue searching for suspects, and even if the government did engage in a manhunt for several days or even weeks, Yui's precautions should still have deflected any significant cause for suspicion away from her.

The government would also likely assume that some type of large organization was behind the assassination - if the plan worked, then it would appear that the "assassin" was killed in order to ensure that the authorities couldn't get any information out of him. If it didn't work, then the room would detonate _anyway_, and the assumption would be that the "assassin's" masters had terminated him as punishment for failure.

All this going on, while Yui wouldn't even be in the same building.

Admittedly, the obvious problem with this method was that she couldn't exactly _aim_ the rifle in the event that her target wasn't standing in exactly the right place, but that wasn't a problem. She wasn't on a deadline, after all, and if it didn't work, she'd simply observe the methods used to increase the target's security, plan out how to circumvent them, and try a different approach. Possibly a car bomb, or some type of low-scale biological attack.

At that moment, commotion on the street caught her attention. The target had arrived. Waiting a moment until he had gotten behind the podium as predicted, Yui turned up the TV volume until it could be heard in the hallway as a means of announcing that, yes, she was in her hotel room. And then, pushing past her trepidation, she dialed the disposable phone's number, had it start ringing, and then chucked her own disposable cell phone out the window.

A few seconds later, there was a gunshot. The target staggered back for a moment and clutched at his chest before falling over on his side. The crowd began to panic as the situation dawned on them.

A few seconds after that, the room with the assassination equipment exploded in a magnificent fireball, like something straight out of a Michael Bay movie.

Trying not to focus too hard on the fact that she'd just killed someone, Yui got up, switched the television to her DVD player, and put in _Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie_.

Tails was goddamn adorable, and never failed to put Yui in a good mood...

* * *

One sunny early evening, Shinji growled in irritation as he observed the Angel that had appeared some hours ago. Shaped like a big damn blue gemstone, was Ramiel. Angel of Thunder.

"Bastard, showing up during the day when I can't kick your ass. Why are you even trying to drill through to the Geofront anyway, instead of, I dunno, just blasting everything apart? NERV hasn't been able to deploy that orange Evangelion that showed up last time, and for the past few hours the JSSDF proved yet again that conventional weapons aren't worth a damn against Kaiju-type opponents."

The Angel's reply was calm, its 'voice' calm and collected.

_Destruction for its own sake is a tasteless endeavor, and to systematically atomize the entire human population would take weeks. However, an extraterrestrial life-form of... abnormal power resides within the Geofront._

Shinji raised an eyebrow. Apparently, the ageless messengers of god were lacking in patience. "...'Abnormal?' From the way you hesitated, I'm guessing that you meant something more like 'godlike'."

_The life-form which NERV has codenamed 'Lilith' is nothing like The Almighty, but it is still an existence far greater than His Messengers._

"I see. So, some kind of... lesser pagan alien god or something?"

Ramiel seemed to scoff at the Ikari boy as it continued. _Not truly accurate, but if imagining so helps you understand, then so be it. In Lilith's current state of dormancy, its power can be accessed and controlled by life-forms with sufficiently great cosmic awareness. If an Angel were to interface with it... myself, for instance... then I could make use of Lilith's power to initiate what you would term a 'Third Impact', and wipe out all of humanity at once._

Shinji narrowed his eyes, certain that Mephisto was observing the conversation by his own means. "... I see. And the reason you're so cool about explaining all of this to me, when you know that Mephisto and I will do everything we can to stop you?"

Ramiel paused, as though in contemplation. _I cannot deviate from my determined course. But even if I feel you must die alongside your race, that does not mean you have to die in ignorance. At my present rate of penetration through the Geofront's armored layers, it will be close to midnight local time before I breach NERV's complex proper. If there is anyone you wish to spend time with before the end, I advise that you make use of it._

Deciding that, as far as genocidal cosmic beings went, Ramiel wasn't so bad, Shinji asked, "And what if The Almighty doesn't want this? What if His will is for humanity to live? What will you do then, Angel of Thunder?"

Ramiel paused once again, and remained silent for several seconds. _The Almighty has been silent, but the prophesied time from ages past has still come for humanity to be judged. If I am acting against the will of The Almighty, then His hand will see to it that I fail, and my existence will come to an end, as did Sachiel's._

Shinji tried to wrap his mind around that. "But... you can't even ask if what you're doing is right or not?"

Though its physical appearance didn't change, Shinji got the impression that Ramiel was giving him something like a sad smile.

_Humans are not the only creatures whose prayers to God are met with silence. I, too, have no choice but to keep going forward with only the faith that my path is righteous._

The sun continuing to set, Shinji let out a sigh as he turned to leave. "If you weren't set on wiping out mankind and I didn't have to try and kill you, we probably could've been pals."

_Circumstances may have pit individuals against each other as enemies, but that does not mean that they must have mutual enmity._

At about that time, the orange Evangelion - which, now that Shinji was getting a real look at it, had a massive 00 emblazoned on it in a few places - rose from the streets, and began striding off into the distance.

Deciding that it was time to borrow some poor sap's motorcycle again, Shinji set out looking for a nice bike.

* * *

Several hours later, Ramiel had nearly finished drilling through the twenty-odd armored layers between it and the Geofront.

At that moment, the Angel detected an enormous buildup of energy.

_And so the battle begins. _

Bending the light of its soul, Ramiel unleashed a mighty beam of heat and fire in the direction of the energy buildup. However, the Angel's bolt of divine force was bent aside by incoming blast of antimatter, and both attacks went wide.

_That humans could craft a weapon capable of matching my own power... I offer you my praise, children of God. If only you did not seek to match Him as an equal, things may never have had to come to this._

Ramiel prepared to attack again, but hesitated upon feeling a burst of hellfire. Stretching its awareness, Ramiel saw that the Ghost Rider was standing atop the false Angel's weapon, imbuing it with hellfire.

The false Angel, named Evangelion by the children of God, pulled the trigger once more, and a blast of hellish antimatter sang out of the barrel, perfectly aimed to destroy Ramiel.

There was no time for Ramiel to bend the light of its soul to protect himself.

As its very soul burned away to nothing, Ramiel slipped into oblivion with grace, its last thoughts being a song in praise of mankind.

* * *

Gendo absently wondered why the old men had called for him on such short notice. Surely they weren't going to try and cut his defense budget _already_? If he was fortunate, he could use this second Angel incursion to justify asking for Asuka and Unit-02. He'd gotten fortunate with Lucifer showing up and temporarily upgrading Unit-00's positron rifle, but they couldn't continue to rely on an x-factor like him.

Surrounded by SEELE's black monoliths, Gendo asked, "Is something the matter, gentlemen?"

With the answer, everything went to hell in a handbasket.

"04, 07, and 12 are dead. Somehow, SEELE's secrecy has been compromised, and someone is attempting to exterminate us."

* * *

**Have a Happy Halloween! ... And also probably a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and joyous any-other-significant-holidays, since the next update probably will be long after they've passed...**

**Also, yeah, skipped over Shamshel. Because the main event tied to it in canon was the 'Shinji-makes-friends-with-Toji-and-Kensuke' subplot, which isn't being implemented here.**

**Reviews keep the world a-spinnin', folks.**


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